In a variety of residential and commercial activities, it is often desirable to remove and dispose of several types of wood products, including branches, bushes, trees, brush, etc. For instance, in a residential setting it may be necessary to trim or completely remove a tree because the tree needs to be pruned, the tree is dead or dying, the tree has been damaged in a storm, or the homeowner simply desires the tree to be removed. Moreover, trees must often be removed in many commercial activities including power line construction and maintenance, road construction, real estate development, and other forestry applications.
In such cases, the tree is typically cut down at a point above the ground so as to leave a stump portion of the tree in the ground. The above-grade portion of the tree (e.g., the trunk, limbs, leaves, etc.) is cut into smaller sections and if not kept for firewood, might be disposed of through a chipping process. While larger sections of the trunk might be hauled away or split into firewood, the smaller trunk section and limbs are typically chopped up or chipped and disposed of as chips. To this end, the trunk and limbs are typically manually picked up from the ground and fed into a chipping machine or chipper, which reduce the tree portions into small wood chips. The small wood chips may be collected and used for mulch, fuel, and other applications, or may simply be discarded. Typical wood chippers include an in-feed chute and a cutting assembly having a rotatable disc with at least one knife or blade for chipping the wood fed through the in-feed chute.
In some applications, it is also necessary or desirable to remove the stump portion of the tree that is still in the ground. For instance, in residential settings, tree stumps detract from the aesthetic value of the landscape, interfere with the establishment of replacement trees, present a nuisance to lawn maintenance, and may further present safety concerns for children and others. In these cases, it may be necessary to remove the stump from the ground. One method commonly used to remove stumps is to use a stump-grinding machine. To this end, the stump grinder may be positioned in front of or over the stump and an arm extending from the stump grinder base supports a rotating grinding wheel. As the grinding wheel rotates, the arm is swept back and forth laterally across the stump to grind the stump into relatively small pieces of wood. The grinding wheel is moved downward toward the ground until the remaining stump is located at a desired level below grade. Typical stump grinders include a rotatable disc having a plurality of hardened teeth that impact the stump at a relatively high rate of speed so as to essentially pulverize or grind the wood material into small pieces.
Chipping and grinding machines used to dispose of trees are typically expensive to purchase and operate. For example, commercial chipping machines may be quite large and therefore require a designated truck to tow the chipper to the job site. Further, these machines typically discharge the chips into a chute with such velocity that it is often necessary to direct them into a specialized truck bed on the back of the tow vehicle. The specialized bed is referred to as a chip box and typically consists of five fully connected and closed sides and a partially, and sometimes fully, open rear side with the opening being positioned in an upper portion of the rear side. This configuration effectively contains the chips discharged by the chipping machine. Consequently, some tree service companies focus on disposing of the above-grade portion of the tree, such as by using a chipper, while others might focus exclusively on removing the stump from the ground, such as with a grinder. As a result, homeowners and others wanting the entire tree removed must plan and schedule separate appointments with two different companies, which is inconvenient to the homeowner and frequently more costly by virtue of involving two companies.
Other tree service companies, however, may provide both services. To this end, these tree service companies typically implement the tree removal through a two-step process. Initially, a first crew of usually three or four workers proceeds to the job site where they cut the tree(s) and dispose of the above-grade portion of the tree. The first crew typically includes a relatively large truck including the previously described chip box and having a chipper hitched thereto for chipping the above-grade tree portions.
After the above-grade portion of the tree is disposed of, a second, separate worker, or in some cases a crew, comes in with separate grinding equipment specifically designed for stump removal. Although one company may perform both services, the expense of providing both a chipper and grinder are high because different sets of equipment must be transported, operated and maintained. Additionally, in many situations, the stump grinding cannot be scheduled to commence immediately after removal of the above grade portion. Reasons for these scheduling difficulties are numerous, with weather, location, and other jobs being but a few examples. Additionally, many types of wheeled stump grinders have difficulty crossing hilly, slippery, or uneven terrain. In these situations, it is common to wait until the site appears to be dry before attempting to access the site. In any event, these delays cause the customer to wait for the job to be completed, which often is a source of frustration to the customer. Moreover, larger tree services may wait to invoice the entire job, including the above ground removal, until the entire process is complete. This invoicing delay can place burdens on the tree service's cash flow.
Another undesirable aspect of stump grinding is that the grindings are left behind by the stump grinding machine. In many cases, the stump grinding process results in the grindings being strewn over a fairly large area that, in many instances, is much larger than the area covered by the stump. Frequently, the tree removal service will not remove the grindings but leave them on the ground for the customer to ultimately dispose of. In the cases where the tree removal service does remove the grindings, yet more laborers or mechanized equipment is required to be brought to the site at still further cost to the customer. Many customers are simply not willing to bear this cost and are left with an unsightly pile of grindings which must eventually decompose. In other cases, tree removal companies might not be able to completely communicate to customers all the implications of leaving stump grindings to decompose. For example, the decomposition process affects the acidity of the nearby soil, which can impact the growth of new plants or grass.
Further, tree roots and the trunks contain high concentrations of tannins, which create soil acidity undesirable for certain plants, especially lawn grasses which are commonly planted over an area where a tree stump was removed. Given the cost of grinding removal and undesirable aspects of leaving the grindings to decompose, a stump grinding machine that could efficiently collect the grinding debris would be desirable. Because the volume of stump grindings can be considerable, and recognizing the need of a truck mounted chip box, it may be desirable that a machine mounted hopper, which functions to collect both wood chips and stump grindings, include an emptying system that will work effectively with the specialized truck mounted chip box.
Yet another shortcoming of current stump grinders is the swing type method of operation. As noted above, these devices consist of a rotating wheel which is relatively thin in width relative to its diameter. The grinding wheel is attached to an arm extending out from the machine base and the stump is ground by swinging the wheel in arcuate shaped lateral passes across the stump and increasing the depth of cut until the desired amount is removed or the grinding wheel has reached the limit of its vertical travel (e.g., typically around nine inches). This method results in inconsistent grinding depth and insufficient surface coverage. Additionally, while accepted as the industry standard, this method requires considerable operator skill, is time consuming, and is often imprecise. By way of example, the debris from the grinding process piles up in the work area making it difficult for the operator to see what has been ground and what still remains to be ground. Repositioning the machine to grind missed spots is common. Moreover, tree species, such as Silver Maples and other species, commonly grow substantial surface roots, the removal of which can be time consuming and tedious using the swing-type stump grinder.
Other hardwood trees, such as oak or walnut trees, begin to crown out immediately below grade, which is evidenced by observation grades rising up as the lower most portion of tree trunk is approached. For example, for a tree trunk with an at-grade diameter of 36 inches, the crowning from the trunk to the affected surrounding grade could be several feet wider than the diameter of the trunk itself. When grinding the stump of such a tree with a swing type grinder, it is not practical to level this peaked area. Consequently, the property is often left with an undesirable hump where the tree stump was removed.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved apparatus and method for handling wood products, such as trees, bushes, and other fibrous materials, that address these and other drawbacks of current apparatus and associated procedures.
In other tree-related activities, a typical tree-removing or maintenance operation may consist of removing smaller branches from a tree, followed by removal of larger branches and branches high off the ground. This is then followed by removal of the tree trunk. The remains of the tree can either be transported off-site without breaking them apart, or could instead be reduced to wood chips at the site itself. If broken into wood chips, these are then carried away, typically in a specialized truck. Moreover, in a conventional tree-removal operation, the remains of the stump must either be dug out or ground up.
Apparatus for chipping wood in such operations are known. Conventional apparatus, however, are only capable of performing individual tasks. Conventional apparatus are therefore not capable of performing all of the functions necessary to remove a tree on the job site. This requires the tree removal technician to either haul several pieces of equipment to the job site or to make repeated trips to a job site with different pieces of equipment.
Neither of these options, however, is time nor cost efficient. This is so especially in an age when fuel conservation is becoming increasingly important and certain states are levying taxes for each engine powering vehicles for non highway use, such as those used by urban tree care professionals. Many urban tree care organizations currently own some or all of the diverse apparatus commonly used for tree removal and maintenance.
Machines are known that are capable of performing a number of tree care related tasks but these machines cannot perform all of the tasks associated with tree removal and maintenance in an efficient and safe methodology familiar to the practices of urban tree care professionals. For instance, forestry and right-of-way maintenance machines can remove a tree but not necessarily grind the stump or dispose of the chips. Moreover, such machines cannot traverse improved surfaces such as lawn areas, driveways and sidewalks without causing damage.
There is a therefore a need to provide an apparatus capable of functioning as a wood chipper and also capable of performing additional functions. In particular, there is a need to provide a wood chipping apparatus capable of performing all of the functions necessary to remove and/or maintain a tree on the job site, especially in an urban setting, in a safe and effective manner.
In yet other tree-related activities, in tree maintenance and care services there is a need to reach branches growing high up on a tree for their maintenance and removal. This can be done, for example, by means of a ladder or by ascending the tree. However, the reach of a ladder can be limited, and to ascend a tree safely, considerable skill and time are required. For this reason, lifting devices have been developed to meet this need, such as platform lifts, boom lifts or bucket trucks (also known as cherry pickers). A bucket truck's arm segments are configured in a way that allows them to reach up and over a tree limb, making lifting devices of this type popular in tree care applications.
Lifting devices, and bucket trucks in particular, are commonly attached to a truck which, while serving as the lifting device's transport vehicle, also serves as the device's base. Because the transport vehicle (e.g., a truck) is relatively heavy, outriggers and/or electronics are used to prevent the lifting device from tipping over when the boom arm is in certain extended positions. Rather than transporting the lift machinery on a vehicle or through use of a tow vehicle, it can be driven under the transport vehicle's power to the work site. Using a truck as the base for high reach tree care equipment is considered the quickest means of transporting. However, trucks are often limited to traveling on paved surfaces because of their weight and are thus limited to tasks that can be reached from paved surfaces. This can result in a frustrating limitation as a significant percentage of tree maintenance and care is for trees not adjacent paved surfaces.
Lifting devices are also known that are self propelled machines and, as such, are capable of being driven off of paved surfaces. However, these devices are relatively large; at least to the extent that they need to be transported on a trailer or on the back of a flat bed truck. Given the dynamics of the tree care industry, use of such devices requires that the user (e.g., tree service) bring an additional truck. A typical tree service uses what is referred to as a chip box truck to pull a towable tree chipper. The discharge end of the tree chipper is proximate the open end of the chip box truck and the infeed end of the chipper is at the opposite end of the machine so that long and otherwise large limbs can be stacked up and fed into the chipper.
Simply locating a mobile lifting device anywhere on a trailer would not be effective. Placing a conventional lifting device on the front of the trailer would leave the discharge end of a conventional chipper too far from the back of the chip box truck, and parts of the lifting device may obstruct the stream of chips flowing into the chip box. Placing the chipper on the front end of the trailer and the lifting device on the back end of the trailer would require workers to step up onto the trailer and the chipper while working around the lifting device. Further, manually fed limbs can be 20′ or more in length, thus making it desirable for the end of the chipper to be positioned so that it faces a relatively large open area often referred to as the staging area.
Within the dynamics of the tree care industry, this practice would be very inefficient. Further, many sites have space limitations, both with respect to the site itself and egress. Accordingly, a long trailer would be more impractical in such situations. Therefore, in order to use a self propelled lifting device, the tree service needs to transport it to the site with a separate vehicle. This requires the tree care professional to incur not only the cost of the separate vehicle but personnel to drive the vehicle.
Lastly, self propelled lifting devices capable of ascending to heights comparable to that of bucket trucks carry costs that are far greater than the cost of a truck-mounted bucket lift. In fact, the cost of some self propelled lifts exceeds the cost of the entire tree care package that a tree care professional would purchase. The package would be defined as the tree service base truck, the chip collection box, the boom lift and the tree chipper. Given this expense, it is understandable why many tree care services find the cost of a self propelled lift very high relative to the cost of other equipment. There is thus a need to provide a lifting device that can address the drawbacks of the prior art.
A variety of apparatus have been described to address this need, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,625 to Clements, U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,622 to Lindquist, U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,124 to Foster, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,273,342 to DeSilvio and U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,527 to Luscombe. Each of these apparatus extends the reach of a construction or landscaping machine. However, these devices are limited in their function. Moreover, the technical challenges of creating such a mobile apparatus are extensive. By way of example, a wide variety of fully functional equipment such as wood chippers, stump grinders, lifting devices must be mounted to a mobile chassis with power capabilities to meet the functional expectations, all sized appropriately for traveling roads to reach a job site, and capable of traversing a maintained lawn or other improved surfaces without causing damage. To the contrary, devices that can easily attach to smaller, more maneuverable machines are either not designed to attach to larger machines or do not gain any advantage in reach when attached to larger machines. Other devices that do not fully integrate with larger machines must be brought to the site separately.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide apparatus and related methods that address these and other drawbacks of equipment currently available for maintenance and/or removal of high tree branches.